In a bold move, EMI and Apple are making music by some EMI artists — including Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones and Coldplay — available on the iTunes music store free of DRM (Digital Rights Management) controls and at a higher quality of audio encoding (256kbps, AAC).

While this looks and sounds like a move in the right direction, there is a cost increase of 102% 30% over the normal iTunes per-song charge.

Update: I mistakenly applied the DRM-free video price as the DRM-free music price — hence the earlier miscalculation of a 102% increase in price.  The correct increase is 30%.  I have corrected the body and title of this post.   Thanks, Marc, for catching that.

Last week I blogged about Steve Jobs calling for an end Digital Rights Management (Steve Jobs takes on DRM).  Add Yahoo! and music giant EMI to the list.

A USA Today article (EMI in talks to dump copy protection) reports that David Goldberg, General Manager for Yahoo Music, believes online music sales would increase by 15% to 20% without DRM.  The article quotes Goldberg as saying “The labels understand that DRM has to go.  It’s nothing but a tax on digital consumers.”

The article also reports that EMI is in discussions with online music stores to sell its catalog free of DRM protections, and has already done so with music by Norah Jones.

Vote with your money.